AT least 76 people are dead including 17 children after a horrific crash between a passenger bus, a truck and a motorbike.

The bus burst into flames after colliding with the smaller vehicles in Afghanistan’s Herat province on Tuesday night.

Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesman for the Herat provincial government, said: “Seventy-six citizens of the country […] lost their lives in the incident, and three others were seriously injured.”

He added: “All the passengers were migrants who had boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala,” a town near the Iranian border.

Police in the Guzara district, outside Herat city, said the truck had been carrying fuel – which caused the catastrophic fire.

Provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi confirmed the bus was carrying refugees back from Iran after they were deported.

Everyone on board the bus was killed, as well as two people from the other vehicles, he said.

Herat police said the accident happened because of the bus driver’s “excessive speed and negligence”, AFP reported.

At least 1.5 million Afghans have been turfed out of Iran and Pakistan since the start of this year, according to the UN migration agency.

The neighbouring countries have hosted migrants for decades but this year have begun expelling them en masse.